Category — The easy Guide

Josh of easyWDW and I, co-authors of The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit, will be meeting and greeting and signing copies of our books (or someone else’s book, or your T-shirt, we’re easy) on Saturday, April 28, 2018.

We’ll be at Epcot, on and outside of the Mexico pyramid to the right, from roughly 1p to 2p.

Our book combines…

• the un-matched insights of Josh into the parks and dining (he’s in the parks several days a week) with
• my un-matched insights into the Disney hotels (I’ve stayed in more than 150 Disney World-owned hotel rooms, suites, studios, villas, cabins and campsites)
• other stuff we are both just wizards about

…into the best-rated Disney World guidebook series ever published (our Disney World guidebooks have had almost 300 reviews on Amazon, of which 91% have been 5 stars).

There’s not a better way to spend an afternoon hour on Saturday than reading our book. But if you are at Epcot instead, come on by–we’d love to meet you and thank you!

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UPDATED EDITION OF THE EASY GUIDE

Amazon has released the updated version of my and Josh’s The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit 2018, the latest edition of the best-reviewed Disney World guidebook in history.

We first published the 2018 edition in late August 2017, updated it in November, and updated it again with almost 50 pages of changes in early March 2018.

If you bought the 2018 edition you get this update (as a PDF) for free! If you’ve already sent in your email, we’ll start sending instructions on how to get the updated PDF this week.

If you bought the 2018 edition but have not yet forwarded your Amazon confirmation, then quit fooling around and get it to us! Here’s the instructions:

And if you haven’t bought it yet, what are you waiting for?

We’ve had almost 300 reviews of this Disney World guidebook series on Amazon, and more than 90% are five stars. You won’t find more informed, more thoughtful, more experienced, more judicious or more silly companions to the Disney World parks, resorts, or dining venues than me and co-author Josh. Ours is the most accurate and most up-to-date Disney World guidebook you can find.

Here’s the key changes in the March update:

Chapter 1: How to Use This Book

Chapter 1 has three purposes: introduce the rest of the book, summarize our recommendations for first-timers, and indicate what’s new for returning visitors.

Pursuing the third purpose, the big news of the rest of the update to the book is also noted here:

• The opening date of June 30 for Toy Story Land
• Seasonal pricing for multi-day tickets to come “later in 2018,” and
• The addition of FastPass+ at 60 days for Shades of Green, Extra Magic Hours for the Four Seasons, and both for the Disney Springs Resort Area hotels

Chapter 2: Why Age and Height Matter

The only material change here was the upcoming closure of the Children’s Activity Centers. We went to press before the Pixar thingy at the Contemporary was announced.

Chapter 3: How Long to Stay

The prices in this chapter are updated to reflect the ticket prices that came out in February. In some cases, the cost of adding a day actually went down.

Chapter 4: When to Go

Little changed in this chapter—we went to press after the start date for the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival (August 30) was announced.

Chapter 5: Where to Stay

• We updated the hotel advice and reviews of this chapter based on the additions of FastPass+ at 60 days and Extra Magic Hours to the various hotels noted above
• We also updated the refurb status of various hotels–e.g. the Dolphin, Pop Century, Caribbean Beach, Coronado Springs, Port Orleans French Quarter
• The announcement that the Disney resorts would charge for overnight parking for trips booked March 21 or later came out after we went to press

Chapter 6: How to Spend Your Time

We made dozens of changes to this chapter, our most important. Most were minor—but not all. A few worth noting

• A new entry on UP! A Great Bird Adventure, to debut at Disney’s Animal Kingdom on April 22
• Multiple revisions to the Hollywood Studios material related to challenges you’ll find seeing Toy Story Mania between now and when Toy Story Land opens on June 30, including a recommended touring plan for dates when FastPass+ for it can’t be booked
• Changes to FastPass+ priority at Magic Kingdom

Chapter 7: Where to Eat

“Where to Eat” always sees a ton of changes when we update because of Disney World’s constant pricing and menu changes. In addition

• We note that Dining Plan users can now use the plan to pay for Mobile Orders
• We introduce the dining options to come in Toy Story Land
• We note the coming two-credit prix fixe dinner menu coming July 27 to Be Our Guest
• We revise the entry on The Edison, and add new entries for Ale & Compass, Enzo’s Hideaway and Maria & Enzo’s Ristorante

Chapter 8: Which Tickets to Buy and What to Budget

We’ve revised all the material in this chapter to reflect

• The new ticket prices announced in February
• The move of Disney later this year to seasonal pricing for multi-day tickets

Chapter 9: How to Set Everything Up and Get Everything Done

We revised the To-Do lists in this chapter to reflect the addition of more hotels to 60 day FastPass+ eligibility.

Chapter 10: Where to Go Next

We made no significant changes to this chapter, as the places to go next remain easyWDW.com and yourfirstvisit.net!

We pride ourselves on having the most accurate and up-to-date guidebook available, and updates like this are what make that come to life! Already have yours?  Then write us a five star review on Amazon!

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Josh of easyWDW and I, co-authors of The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit and sometimes stars of Hoop-Dee-Doo, will be meeting and greeting and signing copies of our books (or someone else’s book, or your back, we’re easy) Saturday January 27.

We’ll be at Epcot, on and outside of the Mexico pyramid to the right, Saturday 1/27/2018 from roughly 4p to 5p.

Our book combines…

• the un-matched insights of Josh into the parks and dining (he’s in the parks several days a week) with
• my un-matched insights into the Disney hotels (by the time of our meet-up, I’ll have stayed in 154 different Disney World-owned rooms, suites, studios, villas, cabins and campsites)

…into the best-rated Disney World guidebook series ever published (our Disney World guidebooks have had almost 300 reviews on Amazon, of which 91% have been 5 stars).

There’s not a better way to spend an afternoon hour on Saturday than reading our book. But if you are at Epcot instead, come on by–we’d love to meet you and thank you!

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

As noted yesterday, Josh and I just published an update to our The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit 2018, the best-reviewed Disney World guide book in the known universe.

Those already on our update list will get instructions on how to get their 2018 update shortly. If you purchased the 2018 edition but are not yet on our 2018 update list, here’s how to get on it:

This was, by our standards, a minor update, as not a lot has changed since our August 2017 publication date. Here’s what’s different or updated:

• We’ve added the new dog-friendly pilot to the four resorts it affects.
• Although we don’t usually do rumors, the potential impact of the rumored expansion of access to 60 day FastPass+ is so strong that we noted it at several points
• We’ve added the dates for the Festival of the Arts and the Flower and Garden Festival, and changed the name of the old Holidays Around the World to The Festival of the Holidays
• We updated the construction and/or refurb status of the moderate resorts and of Pop Century and the Yacht Club, and added the new Yacht Club floor plan.
• Thanks to reader feedback, we fixed a few errors or omissions that had crept in—the height minimum in Rock ‘n” Roller, a place where we had left out tiering at the Animal Kingdom, and a point about crowd calendars.
• We made a change in the FastPass+ priority order at Epcot
• At the Studios, we’ve updated the names of one attraction (Walt Disney Presents) and of one of the lands (Grand Avenue), added BaseLine Tap House, updated the FastPass+ priority order, and added Jingle Bell Jingle BAM!
• At Magic Kingdom, we revised the time of the Afternoon Parade and update the touring plans to reflect it.

We pride ourselves on having the most accurate and up-to-date guidebook available, and updates like this are what make that come to life!

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

Amazon has released the updated version of my and Josh’s The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit 2018, the latest edition the best-review Disney World guidebook in history.

We first published this 2018 edition in late August, and our latest update adds things that have changed since then, and corrects a couple of errors that our readers let us know about!

I’ll write more soon about what’s in this update (I’m traveling for Thanksgiving now).

If you bought the 2018 edition you get this update (as a PDF) for free! If you’ve already sent in your email, we’ll start sending instructions on how to get the updated PDF this weekend.

If you bought the 2018 edition but have not yet forwarded your Amazon confirmation, then quit fooling around and get it to us! Here’s the instructions:

And if you haven’t bought it yet, what are you waiting for?

We’ve had almost 300 reviews of this Disney World guidebook series on Amazon, and more than 90% are five stars. You won’t find more informed, more thoughtful, more experienced, more judicious or more silly companions to the Disney World parks, resorts, or dining venues than me and co-author Josh. Ours is the most accurate and most up-to-date Disney World guidebook you can find.

Away from the cranberry sauce and buy it now!

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

Josh of easyWDW.com and I will be meeting our readers and signing more or less anything they bring for us to sign—but signing with special delight our co-authored The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney Visit 2018—in later September! (Scroll down a bit to learn more about The easy Guide.)

Specifically, Josh, Steve and I will be in (or near) the seating area at Tomorrowland Terrace at Magic Kingdom on Sunday September 24 from 5.30p til 6.30p.

This time we’ll also be joined by Steve Bell of MilitaryDisneyTips.com!

Steve, in addition to authoring that great resource for military families,  is also the author of Walt Disney World For Military Families  and The Essential Guide to Shades of Green.  Steve—like Josh—is one of my longest-standing imaginary internet friends. If you’ve had enough of us, talk to Steve instead.

We love to be able to meet the folks we’ve tried to help, and are grateful for their kind words and support. If you will be in (or near!) the Magic Kingdom that day, we’d love to meet and thank you, too!

MORE ON THE EASY GUIDE 2018

As I noted a few days ago, the 2018 edition of the best-reviewed Disney World guidebook, ever, is now available on Amazon—paperback here, and Kindle here.

A guidebook too large to be understood or easily used is doing folks no favors. Co-author Josh of easyWDW.com and I from the start wanted to publish the shortest and best-organized guidebook we could. Our 2018 edition has 307 substantive pages—about a third the size of some Disney World guidebooks—and in what is probably a first for Disney World guidebook series, has 8 fewer pages fewer than our 2017 edition!

But in those 307 pages we cover every major decision you need to make—how old and tall your kids should be, how long to stay, when to go, where to stay, what to do in the parks, where to eat, and more.

Moreover, we make it easy for you to refer to the book in the parks. If you purchase the paperback version, we make the Kindle version available for free. Load it onto a Kindle app on your phone and you are all set!

THE MOST ACCURATE DISNEY WORLD GUIDEBOOK

We also pride ourselves on providing the most accurate guidebook available. Our knowledge of Disney World comes from direct experience—Josh is in the parks and restaurants two to four times a week, and later this year I will have stayed in my 150th different Disney World-owned room, villa, suite, studio, cabin or campsite. No one else can match the experience we bring.

Dave’s stays…

We match this with disciplined judgment and a commitment to accuracy. Accuracy is really hard, and we’ve had our share of goofs. But we are sure that we have fewer than anyone else.

For example, another 2018 guidebook that also came out in August 2017 has not updated its entry on Toy Story Mania since 2015, nor has it updated its entry on the Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival since 2015, either. More examples: it has Easter 2018 as April 11, still has a 54 inch trundle bed in Port Orleans Riverside—which was replaced by a 66 inch Murphy bed in 2012 (!)–and has only three DVC studios offering accommodations for 5, rather than the five that’s been true for a while now.

I could go on with many more errors from this alternative, but the key is that it’s really hard to be accurate, and we (largely) get it done.

THE MOST UP-TO-DATE DISNEY WORLD GUIDEBOOK

Our guidebook is up to date as of early August 2017—so we incorporate in it the latest refurb news at Pop Century, Caribbean Beach, and Coronado Springs, the shift of the afternoon parade to 2p, the closures of Ellen’s Energy Adventure and The Great Movie Ride, etc.

But no matter how up-to-date a guidebook is when published, it will necessarily become less so over time, as things change. We solve this problem for our customers by offering free updates. We will update the 2018 easy Guide two to four times between now and August 2018, when we publish our 2019 edition.

Anyone who emails us their Amazon receipt will get instructions on how to get these updates when they come out:

THE BEST DISNEY WORLD GUIDEBOOK

The best-reviewed Disney World guidebook. The easiest-to-use Disney World guidebook. The most accurate Disney World guidebook. The most up-to-date Disney World guidebook. That’s The easy Guide to Your Walt Disney World Visit.

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